Eolo Radsail Pro III 4M

IntroThis was my first 'proper' powerkite after my argos affair (check my other review). It was also one of the first things I bought with my own money (I was 14 at the time ). In the end I paid £110 for it, brand new, RTF. It was the newer 2007 model which I like to call the Pro III, even though apparently this isn't correct but whatever, saves confusion with the other Pro models. It's the one with the graphics printed on both sides anyway. So I was, needless to say, excited for the arrival of my new powerkite.

Bearing in mind, I'm writing this review after owning this kite for 2 years.

The Bag
First looking on the bag it looks like your average backpack, could easily pass off as a normal school backpack. Said 'Radsails' and '4.0m' on it if I recall correctly, dont remember so well and why's this? Well becuase the bloody thing fell apart within a month Hah. The seam where the straps attach to the bag completely ripped. So it wasn't brilliant quality, but it looked nice, and it did it's job while it lasted. Also was color matched to the kite which was nice. I ended up replacing the bag with some Airwalk bag which was much better quality. But like they say, you don't fly the bag so lets move on.

First Impressions of the Sail
I unpacked the kite in my living room when I first recieved it to check everything out... wow this this was BIG compared to my old 2m Argos kite (which come to think of it, really couldn't of been 2m). But looking over the kite, nothing looked terribly bad on it, in fact it all looked very good. All the stitching was nice, admitedly I noticed a few dodgy/wavey sewing, nothing major though. Another big plus is that there is mesh covering the vents, very nice thing to have on a kite, stops leaves/grass/clums of sand/dogs/children getting sucked inside. Also surprising to see this on a budget kite!

The graphics of the kite were also nice, white/orange/black where the colours of the 4 metre, other kites in the series have the same graphics with white/black but with a different colour to represent the size. I.e; white/yellow/black is the 3m, white/blue/black is the 5m, white/red/black is the 6m and white/grey/black is the 7m. Graphics were also printed on BOTH sides of the sail which I think is nice as the previous Radsails only have the graphics printed on the side facing the pilot, with the top side being plain white.

Overall, pretty good, not brilliant, doesn't match Ozone/Flexifoil standards but it doesn't cost Ozone/Flexifoil prices either ;P. But still, it felt very nice and crunchy.

Bridles, Lines and Handles
Bridles were nice and thick, they were a bright green aswell, looked pretty good. Only complaint about the thick bridles is that the knots were also fairly large, so sometimes I got the kite out, tried to launch, and itd just spin/crash/implode, and I'd have no idea why, originally I thought something had broken, but turns out one of the knots had snagged on the bridles, was hard to spot, so be sure to check that out .

Lines, didn't seem up to much, they were rated at 158kg/60kg. 60kg brake lines didn't inspire alot of confidence, but otherwise they seemed fine, no stretching or anything, they were nice and even in length aswell.

And now the handles, I really didn't like the handles, while they were loads better than the handles included with the previous Radsails, they were covered in a very hard plastic/rubber that really made your hands hurt after awhile of use. Very much alike the handles that come with the HQ Beamer II. I'd recommend using gloves with these handles, your hands will appreciate it. The handles did come with these caps that you put on the top and bottom of the handles in which you wrap the lines around in a figure of 8. Before I learnt to parapack I used the winders as they stopped me from tangling the lines beyond belief. Overall though, the supplied handles do their job.

But what's this... No kite killers! Get some, ASAP!

The kite also came with some basic printed instructions, and tutorial DVD (which is pretty good for learning the basics) and a sticker. Let's move on to the important bit...

Flying!
Well, first time I took the kite out, it wasn't exactly windy, I still remember my first session well, at a guess it was around 6-10mph. Unpacked everything, with that weird feeling you get in your stomach when you're excited, launched up and... wow! This thing is completely different to that argos kite, the amount of power i got from the kite was unbelieveable. Flew around for awhile, getting dragged around like a ragdoll, all good fun. Fortunately (unfortunately?) I don't have any tales of how I almost died using it or anything particulary crazy, sorry .

The kite was nice and smooth throughout the window, and it'll happily sit at the edge of the window doing nothing if theres a constant breeze, in lumpy winds it will lose power at the edge then will drift back into the center of the window, as opposed to luffing and opening up in the middle of the window with a bang. Saying that though, it has happened a few times, but I suppose thats unavoidable.

Brake response at first was non existant, the kite flew fine, but it felt 'empty' while flying, kind of hard to explain. So I adjusted the lines, made the brakes tighter and it was MUCH better. Much more responsive, aswell as slightly more powerful.

For scudding and such, the kite produced plenty of power I think. If the wind was nice and constant, +8mph, I was more than able to go into an infinite scud, figure of 8's just kept the kite pulling me, I'd always run out of field space before the kite gave up.

While it took me awhile to get to the stage of learning to properly pendulum jump, I could do it with much ease with the Radsail. For real jumping to start though, the wind really had to be over 12mph. Above that it was great, nice smooth jumps, there was no ripping me off my feet unexpectedly, however, alot of the times, the jumps weren't particulary floating and you would come down with quite abit of weight. But for a beginner, the jumping capabilities are more than adequate.

Buggying and boarding? Well I haven't made extensive use of the Rad with these, but the times I did, especially with buggying, the Rad seemed perfectly suited to buggying, nice smooth pull.

Anything changed throughout the 2 years I've owned the kite? No not really I did however, quickly swap out the supplied handles with soem Flexifoil handles with killers. It was my main kite throughout the whole of the time, helped me develop my skills to no end and in my opinion is the perfect kite for a beginner who wants to get seriously into powerkiting. I tried a HQ Beamer II 3.6m, and well I just didn't like it, wasn't anywhere near as powerful as the Radsail, and the Beamer's lift was nothing compared to the Rad. Yes I know, the Beamer isn't made for lift, but I think, becuase of it's very weak lift, a beginner will outgrow the Beamer very quickly, which isn't the case with the Radsail.

For the 2 years, the Radsail has been out in a large variety of wind speeds, 2mph to 20mph. Inland fields to beaches, in every condition the Radsail never failed to disappoint. It was always a thrill to use. Although, I did recently sell the kite, becasue I did feel it was time to move on. In winds from 5-15mph the kite while still strong for other people who were new to powerkiting, for me I just felt underpowered, however, above 18mph and it'd get abit hairy, the kite would be quite twitchy and was surprisingly lifty, it'd also be prone to overflying, luffing, the exploding open in the center of the window.

So I sold the kite to a friend of mine who got hooked into powerkiting via the Rad. It survived 2 years with me, with getting thrashed around, with many newbies using it, and through all that, it's just abit muddy, only visible thing thats wrong now is that the mesh covering the vents is slightly frayed on a few cells. I foresee this kite powering on for a long time to come!

Conclusion
Having tried a wide variety of different kites; Beamers, Bullets, Blades, Samurais, I can safely say the Radsail Pro III does exceedingly well in comparison to these, being a budget beginner/intermediate kite I'd have no problems recommending this as a first kite (the 4 metre one anyway). While it has it's flaws, being a budget kite I'd have expected much worse. I think the fact that this kite has stuck with me for 2 years and only moved away to progress further into power kiting says alot.

Bag: 4/10
Kite Sail: 8/10
Bridles/Lines: 8/10
Handles: 6/10
Overall: 8/10

Pro's:

• Cheap.
• Not easy to outgrow.
• Excellent performer.
• Suits static flying, buggying and boarding.
• Stands up to wear and tear very well.

Con's:

• Naff handles.
• Twitchy in high winds.
• In high winds likes to luff and explode open in the middle of the window.
• Experienced flyers will prefer a more powerful/lifty foil.

By : Cyph3r